Batboard

I just got what I believe is a Maxtrac 900MHz radio. The face says its a Maxtrac, as well as the sticker on the heat sink. Going by the sticker it should be a 10 watt 900 MHz radio. I was going by the graphs on batlabs, and I can't find any of the numbers on the boards that match those charts. I did not take the boards off the chasis to look on the bottoms, but there are stickers on top if I remember right, the number started off with FRN, but there were no numbers with the HL in the beginning. Also, attempting to program it with the RSS, in the top right of the rss, it will come up attempting to recover serial port or something along those lines. After that, it comes up with an error that the radio must be turned on to program. When you press F2, the radio beeps, power cycles, and beeps on more short beep. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks

Check the Motorola/MaxTrac stuff on http://www.repeater-builder.com. There's an article there that lists the various circuit board numbers. The 900 MHz radios use different boards than the VHF/UHF/800 MHz radios, and the numbering is different. The models should be either stamped in black or white ink directly on the board, or on stickers placed on the board where they're clearly visible. You don't have to remove the boards; they'll be plainly visible (unless the sticker fell off) on the top side. The RF board should be an HRFnnnn, and the logic board should be an HLNnnnn.

If the model number of the radio, on a sticker that's usually on the bottom of the heatsink, starts with D27, that's a 12w 900 MHz unit. There are other subtle tell-tale signs, but you can't tell unless you open it up.

Most 900 MHz radios are trunking, so perhaps it's not happy with the software you're using to talk to it. There are different programs for trunking and conventional; whether that's causing it to reset and beep is unknown, but it's a possibility.

Check your RIB, cables, and battery with another radio. MaxTracs are pretty bullet-proof, but they can be destroyed if you try hard enough.

Bob M.

I'll try the trunking version of the software later on. As I said earlier, the HRF and HLN numbers were nowhere to be found. I will pull the covers off and post the numbers later as well. The interface setup should be ok as I was able to read 3 MCS2000's last night right before I tried the Maxtrac.

EDIT: I just checked the repeater-builder site, and I do have the 900 MHz trunked radio. Now, off to try the trunked RSS.